Since most food consumed by humans in everyday life is acidic, the human body tends to become alkali-deficient. To cope with the imbalance, water containing alkali ions such as calcium, sodium, magnesium and potassium is commercially available as household drinking water to maintain health by replenishing alkali and mineral components.
Household and industrial devices which generate electrolytic ion water containing these alkali ions by electrolyzing city water have gradually become popular. Such an electrolytic ion water generator comprises a pair of electrodes placed apart from each other to form an anode and cathode, and an electrolytic cell having an ion exchange membrane separating these electrodes to form an anode chamber and cathode chamber. The electrolytic ion water generator is connected to a tap water faucet to introduce the water thereto, electrolyses the electrolytes in the water at the electrolytic cell, and removes the water containing alkali ions (cation) from the cathode chamber and the water containing acid ions (anion) from the anode chamber. Plate-type electrodes are usually used for the electrodes, and a number of electrolytic cells are arranged vertically.
The electrolytic ion water generator having the structure described above is assembled from a number of electrolytic cells comprising electrode plates and ion exchange membranes which are arranged alternately at a fixed distance from each other to form a water-tight structure. This configuration has certain disadvantages such as a large number of assembly steps, difficult assembly procedure, low construction efficiency, higher production cost, and long disassembly time when replacing parts.
In addition, electrolytic ion water generators tend to deposit scale such as alkali hydrate on the cathode during operation, which degrades the electrolytic efficiency. Consequently, the polarity of the electrodes must be changed periodically to clean them by backwashing. To prevent any interruption of ion water generation during the cleaning period, a means of switching the electrodes and a means of switching the water flow-path are proposed. These means make it possible to generate ion water even while cleaning the electrolytic cell. However, installing such a water flow-path switching means into a conventional ion water generator inevitably enlarges the device because the structure comprising piping to switch the water flow-path and the water flow-path switching valve cannot easily be compactly built into the cell container.